FEATURE:
Groovelines
The Beatles – Here Comes the Sun
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THERE is a particular reason…
PHOTO CREDIT: © Apple Corps Ltd
why I am spotlighting Here Comes the Sun again. A song I have discussed before, the album it is from, The Beatles’ Abbey Road, turns fifty-five on 26th September. It is an important anniversary. The Beatles’ final studio album (recorded rather than released), it is also one of their best. In terms of rankings, many fans and critics now see it as best. In years past, maybe Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) or Revolver (1966) would have got that honour. A perfect farewell for the band, we get extraordinary performances and some of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s best individual songs. Perhaps McCartney’s influence looming largest. In terms of the medley on the second side of the album. Lennon’s Come Together is one of the highlights. Although there are fewer huge standout tracks compared to some other albums, it is the overall sound and ambition of Abbey Road that makes this album so highly regarded. The iconic album cover and George Martin returning to producing after Phil Spector producing Let It Be. The most-streamed Beatles song on Spotify is also perhaps the highlight from Abbey Road: the majestic and gorgeous Here Comes the Sun. One of two extraordinary songs on the album written by George Harrison – the other is Something -, maybe he peaked in terms of his band output at the very end. It is easy to see why Here Comes the Sun is so popular. It has this optimism. That things will get better. This bright horizon or feeling of being care-free.
I wanted to bring in some features that better explain the origin of the song and what it means. A way of also highlighting Abbey Road ahead of its fifty-fifth anniversary. Prior to coming to those features about Here Comes the Sun, it is worth looking at the critical reaction and love that has been applied to this song. It is one of the greatest songs ever. Perhaps George Harrison feeling stressed about relationships within the band and trying to find some escape. That feeling that things will be alright. A real ray of optimism and uplift on The Beatles’ final-recorded album, it is beloved and celebrated:
“In the context of the late 1960s, according to cultural commentator Steven D. Stark, the song's "promise of a new dawn after a lonely winter caught the wearied sensibility of the counterculture". In her review of Abbey Road for Saturday Review magazine, Ellen Sander said that "Here Comes the Sun" was "an awakening, an exaltation of the dawn" and the start of a run of songs that represented "the [LP's] sun side, suffused with mellowed warmth, woven together with motifs, bridging, reprises, surprises, with all the songs set within one another". Time magazine described it as a "dawn-flecked prelude" to the side-two medley, which the reviewer deemed "a kind of odyssey from innocence to experience", and said that Harrison had "achieve[d] a new confidence in his own musical personality" on Abbey Road. Lon Goddard of Record Mirror described "Here Comes the Sun" as his "pet track", adding: "Nice string picking backs it as the vocals approach Beach Boys or Vanity Fare. Excellent melody creates one of the best atmospheres present on the record."
Writing for Rolling Stone in 2002, Mikal Gilmore likened the song to the McCartney-written "Let It Be" and Lennon's solo hit "Imagine", as Harrison's "graceful anthem of hope amid difficult realities".[58] In the same publication, Greg Kot described it as "simpler, but just as intoxicating [as 'Something']" and said that "Harrison's acoustic-guitar intro is a song in itself, its warmth and fragility presaging the guarded optimism of the lyric."
While expressing regret at having underestimated Harrison as a songwriter, Martin described "Here Comes the Sun" as being "in some ways one of the best songs ever written". Harrison was one of the first musicians in the UK to own a Moog synthesiser; although the instrument had been used by many American acts since 1967, author Thom Holmes says that with Abbey Road the Beatles were "one of the first groups to effectively integrate the sounds of the Moog into their music". Pinch and Trocco describe "Here Comes the Sun" as "one of the best known Beatles songs ever" and the album's "Moog pièce de résistance".
"Here Comes the Sun" has appeared in critics' lists of the Beatles' best recordings. Among these, the NME placed it at number 4 in the magazine's 2015 list of "the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs". In a similar poll compiled by Mojo in 2006, where the song appeared at number 21, Danny Eccleston described it as "perhaps the best song – outside 'Jerusalem' – that religion can claim credit for", adding: "Those who professed surprise at Harrison's immediate elevation to Most Successful Solo Beatle status [in 1970] clearly weren't listening to this.” "Here Comes the Sun" appeared at number 28 on Rolling Stone's 2010 list, where the editors commented that together with "Something", "it gave notice that the Beatles now had three formidable composers”.
Covered by a range of artists through the years, including the great Nina Simone, it is worth discovering where the song came from and its story. To start, Beatles Bible provide some useful quotes and details about Abbey Road’s jewel in the crown. A song that will live through the generations. It is impossible to play the song and not be moved by it. Proof that George Harrison was as good a songwriter as Paul McCartney and John Lennon. One of two masterpieces he wrote for Abbey Road, I am glad this song has got the biggest streaming numbers:
“Written by: Harrison
Recorded: 7, 8, 16 July; 6, 11, 15, 19 August 1969
Producers: George Martin, Glyn Johns
Engineers: Phil McDonald, Geoff Emerick
Released: 26 September 1969 (UK), 1 October 1969 (US)
George Harrison: vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonium, Moog synthesiser, handclaps
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass, handclaps
Ringo Starr: drums, handclaps
Uncredited: four violas, four cellos, double bass, two piccolos, two flutes, two alto flutes, two clarinets
‘Here Comes The Sun’, George Harrison’s second song on Abbey Road, was written on an acoustic guitar in the garden of Eric Clapton’s house in Ewhurst, Surrey.
The song expressed Harrison’s relief at being away from the tensions within The Beatles, the troubles with Apple and the various business and legal issues which at the time were overshadowing the group’s creativity.
‘Here Comes The Sun’ was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen: ‘Sign this’ and ‘Sign that’. Anyway, it seems as if winter in England goes on forever; by the time spring comes you really deserve it. So one day I decided I was going to sag off Apple and I went over to Eric Clapton’s house. The relief of not having to go and see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric’s acoustic guitars and wrote ‘Here Comes The Sun’.
George Harrison
Anthology
Harrison’s understated use of a Moog synthesiser was a key feature of ‘Here Comes The Sun’. Robert Moog’s then-recent invention was a rarity in the UK at the time, and The Beatles were keen to experiment with its sounds.
I first heard about the Moog synthesiser in America. I had to have mine made specially, because Mr Moog had only just invented it. It was enormous, with hundreds of jackplugs and two keyboards.
But it was one thing having one, and another trying to make it work. There wasn’t an instruction manual, and even if there had been it would probably have been a couple of thousand pages long. I don’t think even Mr Moog knew how to get music out of it; it was more of a technical thing. When you listen to the sounds on songs like ‘Here Comes The Sun’, it does do some good things, but they’re all very kind of infant sounds.
George Harrison
Anthology”.
There are two features that I want to get to before rounding off. This one from last year observes how George Harrison’s songwriting really blossomed during the Abbey Road sessions. He would go on to have a very successful solo career. We cannot talk about The Beatles and only mention the songwriting brilliance of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. George Harrison proved he could match their heights:
“A backlog of songs
As the finishing touches were being made to “The White Album” in October 1968, George was on his way to Los Angeles to continue work producing Jackie Lomax’s album Is This What You Want? These sessions would see George heading up a crew that featured the cream of America’s session musicians, and he appears to have relished the chance to take the lead in front of such a fine crop of talent. After the sessions were complete, George headed to Woodstock, in upstate New York, where he spent Thanksgiving with Bob Dylan and hung out with The Band, before returning to England in time to take up his duties as a Beatle once more.
By the time The Beatles regrouped at Twickenham film studios on January 2, 1969, George had a backlog of songs, including “All Things Must Pass” and “Isn’t It A Pity,” the latter dating back as far as the Revolver sessions in 1966. On that first morning at Twickenham, John and George played each other their latest songs. But while George enthusiastically pitched in to help on John’s “Don’t Let Me Down,” when George tried to engage John on his song “Let It Down,” John struggled with its chord structure, choosing instead to play some old Chuck Berry tunes. This was a theme that would recur throughout the “Get Back” sessions.
George’s frustration
George’s inability to get the group engaged on his new compositions would prove a source of frustration for the youngest Beatle. At one stage, George told John that he was thinking of making a solo record, by way of using up the songs he had accumulated – a venture John actively encouraged.
By the following Friday, January 10, George had had enough and declared that he was leaving the band. After such a positive experience in the US, George found the Twickenham sessions a step too far. As he recalled in Anthology, “I had spent the last few months of 1968 producing an album by Jackie Lomax and hanging out with Bob Dylan and The Band in Woodstock, having a great time. For me, to come back into the winter of discontent with The Beatles in Twickenham was very unhealthy and unhappy. But I can remember feeling quite optimistic about it. I thought, OK, it’s the New Year and we have a new approach to recording. I think the first couple of days were OK, but it was soon quite apparent that it was just the same as it had been when we were last in the studio, and it was going to be painful again.”
Though George returned to the fold when sessions moved to Apple Studios on January 21, he no longer pushed for any of his songs to be included in the eventual live show the group would perform on the roof of their building (the legendary “rooftop concert”).
The origin of ‘Here Comes The Sun’
In April, George absented himself from an Apple meeting, choosing instead to head 20 miles south to his friend Eric Clapton’s house in Ewhurst, Surrey. And it was while relaxing with Eric in the garden that the seeds of “Here Comes The Sun” were planted. As George recalled in his autobiography, I Me Mine: “‘Here Comes The Sun’ was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen: ‘sign this’ and ‘sign that.’ Anyway, it seems as if winter in England goes on forever, by the time spring comes you really deserve it. So one day I decided I was going to sag off Apple and I went over to Eric Clapton’s house. The relief of not having to go see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric’s acoustic guitars and wrote ‘Here Comes The Sun.’” George completed the song while holidaying in Sardinia, returning just two weeks before work began on the song at EMI’s studios on Abbey Road on July 7 – Ringo’s 29th birthday.
PHOTO CREDIT: © Apple Corps Ltd
“Here Comes The Sun” was the last song that George would present to the group, though John was absent for its recording, having been hospitalized by a car crash in Scotland. The song bore a number of influences. George explained: “It was a bit like ‘If I Needed Someone,’ you know, the basic riff going through it, you know all those ‘Bells Of Rhymney’ Byrds type things. So, that’s how I see it, anyway. It’s quite vintage.”
John saw a much older influence, commenting in 1969: “It reminds me of Buddy Holly, in a way. This song is just the way he’s progressing, you know. He’s writing all kinds of songs and once the door opens, the floodgates open.” George’s love of Indian music was another influence – particularly with the complex timing of the instrumental passage at the end of each chorus. “He said, ‘Oh, I’ve got this song. It’s like seven-and-a-half time.’” Ringo recalled in Martin Scorsese’s Living In The Material World. “‘Yeah, so?’ You know, he might as well have talked to me in Arabic, you know what I mean? I had to find some way that I could physically do it and do it every time so it came off on time. That’s one of those Indian tricks.”
Final touches
With George on acoustic guitar – a capo on the seventh fret – Paul on bass, and Ringo on drums, the 13th take (or take 12 and a half, as it was superstitiously declared) on that July 7 session was the keeper, onto which a number of overdubs would be added over the next six weeks or so: extra drum fills from Ringo and more guitar parts from George, plus an intricate handclaps rhythm were added over the next few days, along with George’s lead vocal and backing vocals from George and Paul. A harmonium was added, before being recorded over by a nine-piece string section, while the work of eight woodwind players was largely erased by an unwieldy new instrument that George had brought into the studio.
Robert Moog’s synthesizer had been increasing in popularity among those in the know in the pop world since its demonstration at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, and George had ordered one after coming across the instrument while recording Jackie Lomax in LA back in late 1968. “I had to have mine made specially, because Mr. Moog had only just invented it. It was enormous, with hundreds of jack plugs and two keyboards,” he recalled. “But it was one thing having one, and another trying to make it work. There wasn’t an instruction manual, and even if there had been it would probably have been a couple of thousand pages long. I don’t think even Mr. Moog knew how to get music out of it; it was more of a technical thing. When you listen to the sounds on songs like ‘Here Comes The Sun,’ it does do some good things, but they’re all very kind of infant sounds.”
All that was left now was to mix the song, and the final touch was added at this stage, with the tape being played slightly fast to increase the pitch of the song by roughly a quarter of a tone – as anybody who has ever tried to play along with the record will have discovered”.
I am ending with this great feature. Apologies if any details or facts about Here Comes the Sun is repeated. Here Comes the Sun not only projects warmth and that sense of the sun being this simple but inspirational thing. It points to a brighter future. A simplicity and sense of ease. No wonder that so many people can relate to the song and find strength from it. Something George Harrison needed to write and put into the world, since 1969, Here Comes the Sun has taken on a new life:
“And “Here Comes The Sun” wasn’t a fluke. Released on the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album — the one with the band walking across the zebra crossing on the cover — it was accompanied on the album by another George Harrison composition, the exquisitely beautiful “Something”.
“Here Comes The Sun” was written at a time when George Harrison was getting fed up of a particularly long and cold British winter — not unlike the past winter as I write this — and had decided to spend the day with Eric Clapton. As the weather was unexpectedly nice, he spent the day in the garden and felt the sunlight on his skin after many months without it.
For readers outside the UK, “here comes the sun” isn’t an expression we can use very often in the winter…
“Here Comes The Sun” is musically quite complex, but lyrically is quite simple.
That really works because the simplicity makes “Here Comes The Sun” a very delicate and tender song. Any artist will tell you there’s a purity in simplicity that’s much harder to find in a more complex piece.
With simplicity, your work has to stand on its own…unadorned.
Simplicity is a very vulnerable thing to do, whether you’re a songwriter, an artist or a musician. There’s nothing to hide behind. And that’s what makes “Here Comes The Sun” such a beautiful record.
It’s very literal too. There are no complex metaphors here. It’s one man’s story, stated as simply as he knows how…
Little darling, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say, it’s all right
IMAGE CREDIT: Jon Berkeley
George Harrison’s voice is the perfect vehicle for this gentle and sensitive song. He was a great guitar player…one of the best, in fact…but he wasn’t an especially powerful singer.
In “Here Comes The Sun”…and indeed in his other album track on “Abbey Road”, “Something”…George Harrison uses his voice to great effect on songs that are gentle, sensitive and delicate. He doesn’t pretend he’s something he’s not.
Lennon and McCartney songs are brilliant compositions…every one of them…written by one of the most successful creative partnerships of all time. But much as I enjoy them, Lennon and McCartney songs are rarely a window to their souls.
Every song George Harrison wrote came from his soul. His songs come from the heart. There’s a piece of him in every one of them.
And maybe that’s our Easter message.
In whatever you do, be yourself.
That takes courage. You might feel vulnerable, uncomfortable, exposed…at first. But there’s an indescribable beauty in discovering who you truly are and sharing that with the world.
Whether or not the world appears to notice or care, you’ll be doing your bit to make the world a better place. Your work will make a difference, however small. And those small differences add up.
George Harrison wrote very few songs that made it to Beatles albums, and even fewer which were released as singles. “Something”, released by the Beatles as a double A-side with “Come Together”, was the only George Harrison composition to achieve that.
However no less a songwriter than John Lennon stated that “Something” was his favourite track from “Abbey Road”. And it remains the Beatles most-covered song, apart from “Yesterday”.
For someone who rarely got a look-in for songwriting duties, George Harrison delivered when it mattered. He wrote some very beautiful songs.
This Easter, on the theme of new beginnings, just remember that even though you might think you’re going through the winter of your life, you never know when summer might just be around the corner.
Every day is a new day, a new opportunity to start again, a fresh chance to become who you were meant to be.
As George Harrison puts it…
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say, it’s all right
Rather than linking to a Beatles performance, the video below is George Harrison on his own, accompanied by Pete Ham. To take on any song with only two acoustic guitars to work with in front of thousands of people takes some guts.
But it proves yet again a point I’ve often made, which is that truly great songs don’t need a full orchestra, a choir and thousands of hours in the studio. If you’re in that game, you’re probably working with material that’s less than great.
Great songs stand by themselves and sound just a beautiful under a range of different treatments, including, as in this case, very simple and unadorned ones”.
On 26th September, Abbey Road turns fifty-five. It will be bittersweet. It was the final album The Beatles recorded. The end of this brief but incredible career. The most important in music history. The greatest band ever. However, Abbey Road is a remarkable album among the most acclaimed of all time. Here Comes the Sun might be the standout from the album. This work of brilliance from George Harrison. A poem and paen that lifts the heart and soul. As Harrison sings: “Here comes the sun, and I say…
IT'S alright”.